Anyone else go back to not using “saved plan views” anymore?


Michael_Gia
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12 minutes ago, glennw said:

 

Most of this discussion has revolved around the relationship between the Plan View and the Layout.

But Plan Views have another benefit that go beyond this function.

They provide a very efficient way to navigate around your drawing.

eg, a Saved Plan View can navigate to a specific part of your drawing like a kitchen or bathroom area and include parameters (as Michael points out) like floor, zoom level, color on/off, watermark, link to layout, reference display, etc.

You don't even have to use the Saved Plan Views linked to your layout if you don't want to, you can use them to only navigate around your floor plans.

A bit like Aerial View on steroids.

 

 

Exellent points Glenn.  Thanks for highlighting some of the additional benefits of the extra capabilities.  These can actually be major time savers are very large/complex projects too.

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1 hour ago, Alaskan_Son said:

Only reason I can even think of is a person not learning to use the tools correctly and just getting frustrated...for example, making themselves set up a unique Plan View up for every single floor--something that is entirely unnecessary. 


I think this is where Chief failed in the implementation of this tool.  It’s a great tool that many do not understand how or why to use.  Chief owes us some in-depth videos on this tool.  
 

And - Glenn is correct.  I use plan views to navigate around the plan and to have multiple views open all at once.  This is one of the big improvements over just using Anno/layersets.  

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2 hours ago, glennw said:

They provide a very efficient way to navigate around your drawing.

So true; thank you, Glenn, for mentioning this. This is one of the main reasons I use SPV's. I open several as I work and can switch from view to view as I work without worrying about what floor to set, what annoset to pick, etc. Great timesaver. My goal is not to sell people on SPV's but to share my experience in using them, as the OP requested.

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Another great advantage with using Saved Plan Views is that you can have as many Saved Plan Views open at once as you like.

One example, you can tile the plan views of different floors displaying in different tabs.

This means that as you are editing, say floor one, (with auto build foundation toggled on) you can dynamically see the foundation rebuild and change in another tab - no need to change floors and zoom, etc, to see the changes to (and to work on) the foundation.

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I think if Saved Plan Views could be expanded to list not only plan views, but anything you send to layout and grouped by layout page then you could work on everything in your layout without ever having to open up your layout. 
Not sure if that’s clear but, in short I’d like to build an outline of my layout within my Plan. Then when my Layout is opened all the pages populate with all the “saved plan/cad/notes”. All that’s left to do is space them out on the page so that they’re not overlapping.  Anyone get me?

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Saved plan views are completely optional and you do not need to use them to produce working drawings.  But then again, so are annotation sets.  But why would you want to work harder than you need to? 

 

Saved plan views are superior to annotation sets in almost every way.  They are much more powerful and they are actually easier to use and learn.  They contain all of the same information that annotation sets do along with a bunch of other things that annotation sets don't have.  We have also provided a number of support tools that make using saved plan views more efficient than just using annotation sets by themselves.  For example, all of your saved plan views are available in the project browser where you have tools for managing your views that are not available for annotation sets.

 

I think it would have been better had we introduced saved plan views before annotation sets.  If we had started with saved plan views, adding annotation sets later wouldn't have been as big of a deal.  In the future, you will likely see a lot more enhancements related to saved plan views and you will probably see less for annotation sets.  If you are still using annotation sets instead of saved plan views, then you are doing more work then you need to and this will probably only get worse over time.

 

And if anyone has any ideas about how we can make saved plan views work even better, then please feel free to submit your feature requests here:

 

https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/forum/8-suggestions/

 

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2 hours ago, Dermot said:

And if anyone has any ideas about how we can make saved plan views work even better, then please feel free to submit your feature requests here:

 

https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/forum/8-suggestions/

 

 

Chief needs to produce additional videos that explain clearly (and slowly) the power and time saved when using Saved Plan Views as opposed to Annotation Sets.  You need to convince the Chief user base to "go into the light"...so to speak. :rolleyes:

 

Unfortunately, it appears from the many comments on this forum that SPV's are nothing more than glorified Anno Sets.  I realize this view is inaccurate...but, I sense this is the prevailing view of many users.  

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I posted a highly debated method for creating CDs using only the plan file. Saved Plan Views were a large part of that method, they made it very simple to navigate and organize especially utilizing the new referenced file tools. I still hope that one day the layout file is nothing more than a PDF compiler, we get closer and closer to it with each release.

 

What I would recommend to all of the late adopters....learn Saved Plan Views in and out, they are simple stepping stone to a much larger change that I think is coming in a few years, as methods such as kanban, and collaborative tools finally gain more traction in the residential sector.

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6 hours ago, javatom said:

You often have insightful ideas but getting rid of layouts is probably the worst suggestion in the history of this forum.

It’s actually quite brilliant. I think Chief is the only software of it’s type that requires you to create your construction documents from a file/program that lives outside of the program in which you create and draw your actual plan. 
It’s cumbersome. 
 

Go back and take a look at Renerabbitt’s post about this.  
 

The Project Browser should be where you organize your construction documents.  Kind of like an augmented Saved Plan Views to include Notes, Cad, and Schedules all in one place along with which page on your layout they are to be sent to. 

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I think Saved Plan Views work great.  I can use the same annotation set with a different layer set. 

 

It has made my demo plans much more simple being able to reference my as-built plan.  I have set up the demo where it basically draws itself, I just have to add notes.  I reference my existing plan with a layer set that has almost every layer as a red dashed line. If a red dashed shows up, it gets demoed.  Then I get to use the note tool (which could use a few tweaks).

 

Saved Plan Views also make my Layouts look more professional and less chaotic.  I can copy the layout from a sheet and paste in place on the next sheet, open the object and change the same plan view, easier and quicker than sending to layout. Works well when reusing a specific layout on another job, just re-link the layout box and done.  When I or the client scroll through the pdf, everything is in the same place.

 

Cannot imagine reverting back and not using Plan Views.

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On 12/30/2019 at 4:12 PM, SNestor said:

 

Chief needs to produce additional videos that explain clearly (and slowly) the power and time saved when using Saved Plan Views as opposed to Annotation Sets.  You need to convince the Chief user base to "go into the light"...so to speak. :rolleyes:

 

Unfortunately, it appears from the many comments on this forum that SPV's are nothing more than glorified Anno Sets.  I realize this view is inaccurate...but, I sense this is the prevailing view of many users.  

I have to whole-heartedly agree with Steve here.  Everyone's talking about all these great things about saved plan views, and yet here (see image) is the explanation of saved plan views in the F1 help file.  There is absolutely nothing to explain what it is and how it helps anyone.   My method for learning about each new version of Chief has been to watch the introductory video and note which new features are special and then try to use them immediately so to lock them into my brain and workflow.  Perhaps this feature was covered in the X11 video but it must not have carried much of a splash in it's explanation, and the help file here is an absolute dud.  

 

Just watched the X12 intro video and as Rene alluded, it appears Anno sets will be going away.  I have to say X12 looks to be incorporating many things which have been asked for in the last year and half that I've been following and posting on the 'suggestions' forum.  Kudos to Chief.  

Saved Plan View.JPG

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3 minutes ago, DzinEye said:

Perhaps this feature was covered in the X11 video but it must not have carried much of a splash in it's explanation, and the help file here is an absolute dud.  


Curious.  Did you just stop there or did you check any of the other files?  For example, did you click on the link in that file the directs you to “Saved and Unsaved Plan Views”?

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4 hours ago, Alaskan_Son said:

Curious.  Did you just stop there or did you check any of the other files?  For example, did you click on the link in that file the directs you to “Saved and Unsaved Plan Views”?

 

4 hours ago, solver said:

The Help system is a reference manual not a users guide.

 

Chief put out videos that give some ideas for use. I linked a couple up thread.


Hi Michael.  Yes I did click it... but only after I just earlier went back to this help file to create my prior post.  And that only happened now because of reading all the glowing reports by you and others about how great the feature is, which made me curious for more info.  But until now I wouldn't have felt inclined to dig deeper for information on something I didn't see or even know what I was missing.  

 

Eric, yes I did see you posted those links above, and thank you for doing that.  Yes, I understand the help system is not a user guide.. but still it could offer just a tad more.  If they had a link to those videos there that would've been awesome.  

 

Somehow you guys and others found the nugget of info that lead you to further searching and figuring out the usefulness of this feature.  But it seems many others, like me, didn't.  I think it's fairly critical for either the new features video to get the message across enough to make one want to look for more info on a feature.   The intro to new features videos by Chief are really great, but ideally there would be a path of numbered videos that one can follow to learn about the features in a logical order so not to miss anything.

 

I appreciate your guys' informational posts here, and everyone else's as well.  The Chief community here is awesome. 

 

Happy 2020 to all.

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19 hours ago, DzinEye said:

Perhaps this feature was covered in the X11 video

 

SPVs were introduced in X10 actually but CA has never really pushed the Idea as far as a deeper dive into them with Training Videos etc which would of helped with the transition for many I think. This X10 new Features Video is a little underwhelming and I am not surprised many missed the whole SPV intro...

 

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/2410/productivity-features-added-in-x10.html


I don't think Annotations Sets are going anywhere as they are used by SPVs though by default the Annotations drop down and management Icon have been removed from the Default toolbar. 

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On 12/28/2019 at 4:05 PM, solver said:

 

 

Chief didn't do much to promote this feature but here are a couple of videos going over the basics.

 

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/2421/saved-plan-views.html

 

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/2433/developing-saved-plan-views.html?playlist=84

 

 

Eric,  at 00:45 seconds into the first linked video, the instructor shows that "when you open a new plan with the out of the box default template, there are several saved plan views already integrated into the plan".  I cannot find the template she is referring to.  Where might that be ?

 

thanks,  J 
 

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12 minutes ago, JJohnson said:

"when you open a new plan with the out of the box default template, there are several saved plan views already integrated into the plan".  I cannot find the template she is referring to.  Where might that be ?

 

If you just migrated all your old files and settings, then you likely don't have it at all.  Easiest way to get them is probably to simply rename the Templates Folder in your Chief Architect Premier X11 Data folder.  Next time you open Chief it should automatically install the template folder that shipped with the program.

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18 minutes ago, JJohnson said:

 

 

Eric,  at 00:45 seconds into the first linked video, the instructor shows that "when you open a new plan with the out of the box default template, there are several saved plan views already integrated into the plan".  I cannot find the template she is referring to.  Where might that be ?

 

thanks,  J 
 

 

The "Residential Template.Plan" file contains some SAVED PLAN VIEWS.  It should be in the Chief X11 Data Folder...in templates.  

 

2020-01-01_17-16-37.thumb.png.e85a588c7825a76abaebfee5c6350cbd.png

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Nice video David, Thanks for posting that.

 

Saved Plan Views, is IMO the single most powerful feature Chief has added in years. Could not work without them but that does not diminish their complexity nor the effort required to set them up efficiently for one's personal work flow. I think it's that inherent complexity that stumps a lot of users and the required effort seems a learning curve too steep to climb. As in a lot of Chief's interface the trade off for that complexity is the power that complexity delivers but can be understandably daunting for many users.

 

I would also bet that very few users take advantage of Plan Views or even know what they are and the distorted picture this forum gives as to the true nature of Chief's actual 'user base' adds a bit to the confusion but their power and efficiency is undeniable. 

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One more thing I think would help in productivity should be the ability to link a toolbar setup to certain SPV's.  ie.  Plot Plan View opens your Terrain Configuration Toolbar, the Electrical SPV opens your MEP Configuration,  Kitchen SPV opens the Kitchen and Bath Design Toolbar Configuration. etc.

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5 minutes ago, parkwest said:

One more thing I think would help in productivity should be the ability to link a toolbar setup to certain SPV's.  ie.  Plot Plan View opens your Terrain Configuration Toolbar, the Electrical SPV opens your MEP Configuration,  Kitchen SPV opens the Kitchen and Bath Design Toolbar Configuration. etc.

David,

 

I love this idea.  It could be a part of the "Defaults".  Since SPV's use the "Defaults" (formerly "Annosets" or "Active Defaults") this would be a great addition to the "Defaults" and therefore automatically SPVs.

 

Please make this request via a support request or use the Beta reporting tool.  I will do likewise.

 

 

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